Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-12-15

| positive-not indeterminate and vague
i but determinate, automatic, self-ev
dent; not to be determined temporaril
as expediency. by statistics, but eterns
and unchangably.
Second-That right cannot wrong
right, and that the injury OF one righ
by another right is self-contradictor.
and absurd-a simple bur dangerou
gra mmatical blunder.
| Third-That right and wrong beint
| self-evident, are not dependent on tn
| will or the moral sense Of the maj0rit,
as supreme arbiter.
Fourth-That all questions of righ
in which the right is not self-eviden1
are matters for the individual con
science under liberty with responsible
ty for its use. and that whenever and
wherever the majority assumes to fix
them arbitrarily it endangers liberty
by taking away responsibility.
The end and aim of Democracy iS in
secure liberty with responsibility. II
has philosophy back OF it formulated
by the greatest minds-worthy of the
study and the feaity of the greatest
minds. Why is it that we strive as
Democrats fut "a .feao wise laws" in-
stead of "nadny wise laws" which Re-
publicans strive for, if not because of
this great central truth that the axioms,
the self-evident truths of right and
wrong, are few, plain. simple. intelligi-
ble to all mankind, recognized in all
ages, by all civilized nations, not tenn
porarily determined by majoriiies. but
alweys existing and always to exist.
So believing, we strive as Democrats
to restricts government to the admin
istration of these plain and self-evident
principles OF right, because all beyond
them is vague. obscure and indeterm-
mate, because what the moral sense of
the majority, guided by statistics, holds
to-day as right {making right the same
as eXpediency) may be wrong again to-
morrow under other statistics aud to
moral sense; because robbed
of our responsibility we lose our liberty
will. it and are no more mon but Great
ures of q majority, deriving all rights
from it, and holding rights only as
Ii right is to be determined by statis-
ties, as Mr.. Justice Harlan determines
it,.if the moral sense of the majority il
to govern. treating right and wrong as
mere relative terms to be determined
by statistics "easily acce sslble toevery-
one." then we in these United States
are adrift on sea of casuistry, without |
rudder or compass, and, being so, are
If all men most miserable, in being of
I'll men most exposed to the wrongs of
But, brethren and fellow-Democrats,
t is not SO! Right is all eternal verify,
md it remains steadfast, however much |
NAV shift and veer. Il is
rot for us to claim privileges. We may
even waive rights, but they must not be
lenied as rights. Our responsibility,
which there is no liberty of
or of action may not be TAX
n from US or hidden from us by the
egerdermain of statistics. We must
lot be robbed of the responsibility Of
nsking wine for ourselves, or of not
naking 1t, because If we Hose TINT vel
ose everything. For the only logic by
which this conclusion that we have on
right to squeeze our own
,rapes can be logically reached Is the
ogic which abolishes Eternal Truth;
which takes God and responsibility to
iod out of the universe and makes
iOd's creature, Mantle one Single I
dsn-the unit in all political numbers
responsible not to Eternal Truth, but
0 Numbers, governed by"sta tistics cas-
ly accessible to everybody" It must
lot be! If we hold to the faith of De-
nocracy, and keep it, our feet are on
he rock, and we are not submerged in
he quicksands of word-play. We are
ot blown about by every wind of doc
rine. We fight not as one that beat
tn the Air.-EeDublicdn.